The roof system is nearly complete

Peter and I mocked up the roof system for the studio inside of my workshop. We started by arranging the large top plates correctly with respect to spacing and height. We then laid out all of the rafters on top of the massive plates to mark precisely where to cut out bird's mouths.

We cut all of the bird's mouths and laid the rafters on top of the plates to get a feel for how things will basically look:



We left ourselves 1/4" of slop on the eave end since we don't know *exactly* how everything will sit on raising day. This extra 1/4" gives us the opportunity to make precise adjustments on raising day to get a perfect fit for our bird's mouths.



One thing became apparent to me. While this building has a tiny footprint, its roof area is fairly large due to the large overhangs on both the eaves and gable ends (especially the south gable end).





In a very non-traditional yet pragmatic move, we opted to use large lag bolts to secure the rafters to the top plates. I found some great 3/8" x 10" lag bolts that should do the trick.



Less than one week until raising day! We still have a ton of work to do to prepare, but we're definitely looking forward to it.